Air cooler



1952 J. D. SCRUGGS AIR COOLER Filed March 18, 1949 INVENTOR. Scruggs John D.

ATTORNEYS.

leakproof relation with flanges 26.

Patented Nov. 11, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE AIIt COOLER John D. Scruggs, Phoenix, Ariz., assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, of thirty-three and one-third per cent to himself, thirty-three and one-third percent to W. F. Vaughn, and thirty-three and one-third per cent to F. R. Draper, all of Phoenix, Ariz.

. Application March 18, 1949, Serial No. 82,157

6 Claims. (Cl. 299-24) This invention relates to improvements in air conditioners. The primary object of this invention isjthe provision of a compact air cooling or conditioning unit, the water absorbent pads of which haye improved means to insure a uniform dispersal of waterfor efiicient cooling action. I

A further object of this invention is the provision of an improved .air cooling unit having means for the fine dispersal of water upontlie evaporating pads.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description.

.In the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, and wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts thruout the several views,

Figure 1 is an end elevation of the improved cooling unit.

Figure 2 is a transverse cross sectional vie taken thru the cooling unit substantially on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

The improved cooling unit A generally comprises a lower casing structure 13; upper casing structure C, anda flexible textile sheet D associated between the casing structures B and C for the purpose of insuring fine dispersal of water upon the evaporating pads E.

The "casing structure B includes a bottom wall l0, front and rear walls II and l2,"and side walls l3.. The walls II and I2 are provided with large passageways l4 therethru for travel of'airthru thelower casing structure B.

walls 20 and 2| which may be of screeningforf A top wall structure 25 may be proabsorbent pad structures, as shown in Figure 2. The side and .end walls of structure B are top flanged at26and the wall 25 is provided with a similar flange soldered orotherwise secured in It is to be noted that the entire wall structure 25 within The upper casing structure C is mainly a water The pads E are supported between foraminous .tank, and of course has the usual filling opening and'vent (not shown). It comprises an arched top Wall 33 having front and rear flanges 3| and side walls having similar flanges 3|. A bottom wall 33 'is marginally soldered or otherwise secured in leakproof relation to the flanges 3|, as shown in Figure 2, and these walls provide a water compartment 35. A valve 36 is mounted upon the water tank wall 33, having an inlet passageway 31 which outlets at 38 into the compartment 39 between the wall 33 and the porous canvas sheet D. A valve operating rod 40 extends upwardly thru a bearing in the wall 30 and is provided with a regulating knob or handle 4| thereon. It is readily apparent that any type of valve structure 36 can be used for the purpose of regulating the drip of water onto the canvas sheet D. ,It is to be noted that a relatively thick gasket 45 is provided between the marginal edges of the wall 33 of tank C and the flanges 26 of the bottom casing structure B. The thickness of this gasket determines the capacity of the compartment 39.

The canvas sheetD is of porous material. It may be formed of cotton, nylon or other material, woven or knitted so as to insure the proper degree of dispersal of water therethru. Ordinarily, woven duck or canvas material will suflice and this will enable the water to drip thru thevalve structure onto the canvas sheet D. Due to the weave of the latter the water will seep thru the canvas material and form in a film without drops upon the under surface of the canvas. As the weight of the water in the compartment 39 increases the canvas will sag to the contour of the top wall 25, and it will be 'noted that the water will then have a natural course directly towards the pad compartments 24; the water seeping into the pad compartments, without a dropping action directly onto the padding material which reaches to contact the sagging canvas. Thus the water will be evenly and finely dispersed thruout the pad structure. I It will be noted that no mechanism is provided to force the water into the evaporating pads. I am aware that it has been proposed to drop water into evaporating pads and provide various expedients for the transmission of water into operating pads, such as thru capillary attraction, porous rigid walls, etc. However, to my knowledge no one heretofore'has provided a flexible textile sheet for the uniform and efficient transfer of the water uniformly thruout the evaporating pad material. l

g The valve is adjustable so that the water drip may be regulated to conform to the amount of tb. ili 'e t h air passing thru the air cooler. It can be opened to a degree which will permit the water to enter the space below the canvas above all of the pads; the porosity of the canvas regulating the dripping of the water: onto the pads 22.

Any number of the pad racks may be provided. It is well known to those skilled in the art that the evaporator pads are diflicult to keep uniformly moist. Ordinarily this is due to the fact that the water is not properly broken up. The use of canvas woven material has been found by me to provide for a proper distribution of water uniformly thruout the pad structure. The

wi hout e i 'mai ie ofpdrop's, upon the under l l ai e he .Cinvas 1 lay r or sheets and proides'ie a uniio m n ef eient saturation of t pad materialjasf. mentioned.

"Yarious changes in the shape, size andarrangef eiitQ l ar sjmay be. made the form f the inventionjherein shown and described without departing from the. spiritjofthe invention or the ton of h onow ne c aims... 7

11 claim;

Atqo ins nitcom risin a ees st t having. an air passageway therethru, providing 'anair path, perforated means upon the casing etruttu vd se he ai pa s ew re a ely thick, water receiving andabsorbing pads supported in eqlumn formation by said perforated "meanswith their'facesof greatest area substantially norinal to said path, a water supply' reservoirimounted above said ipads upon said casing structure includingafbottom Wall spaced above said fpajds, a sheet, of flexible porous fabric in spaced, relation below, said wall and abovegsaid eads, andfmeansi er gula ed supply of wa iej itol h e e the' o us fabr c- 2- "eeqe nguni c mpr sin a casin gst u ihavinsja air-passa eway the eth u. p ovidin n iiinath. perfo ated m ans upon he casin 1st cture across theai r passageway, relatively th k waterreceiving; pajds" supported in column l rmati y aid, erierates means. with t e at s, of reates reawsubs anti iy normal to ,saidpath. awa erisupp y es r rjmounted above sa d pa s upon, said; ca n t u e includin a lbottomnwallgi p q dabo e said pads. a. s t of fleIxible porous fabric in spacedrelation below' said Welland n pa d elati ne s i p ds. means "for'regulated supply of water onto'the top of the fabric, and means'formed as partof the casing str u e n. paced r at o e ow e. porous ehri orisu pe i e the. atter; as it sass to. a pi -de e i d;. xten ,s id means bein s ped m. o .wa ersf om he "under surf of thefabric directly onto the said pads.

'3, In an air 'copling unit the combination of a I casing s-tructureincludinga bottom wall, upstanding-walls and a top wall, opposednpstanding walls having-air entrance and exit passageways therethru, said-upstanding-walls and top; and bottom 'walls providinga chamber, a series of-rela-tively spaced pairsofforaminous walls extendingacross inous walls of each pair of said walls with their faces of greatest area substantially normal to said path, said top wall having openings therethru to the pad material, a sheet of porous textile material 'supportediby. the casing structure "above the "top wall, and'meansfor distributing water upon the top of said sheet of material for seepage therethru onto the top wall and into the openings thereof onto said absorbent pads.

4. An air cooling unit comprising a casing structure including a bottom wall, upstanding walls defining a chamber therein, said upstanding walls having opposed openings therein for upon the casing structure in normally closely spaced relation above the top wall and means for distributing water over the top of the fabric material in such quantity that the material will sag to contact the top wall and convey the water seeping thru said fabric material along the sloping portions of the top wall onto the absorbent pads aforesaid.

:5. An air cooling unit comprising a casin structure including a bottom wall, upstanding walls defining a chamber therein, said upstanding walls having opposed openings therein for travel of air thru the chamber, a series of pairs of spaced foraminous walls across said chamber, pad material in vertically disposed column-like formation between each pair of walls with the faces of greatest area of said pads disposed substantially normal to the path of said air, a top wall for the casing structure downwardly sloping in each direction towards each pad material of each pair of walls, the pad material being exposed tothe. space above said top wall, a porous flexible sheet of material mounted upon the casingstructure, in normally closed spaced relation -above the said top wall, a reservoir supported upon the easing structure above theflexible material having avalve for. calibrated feediof water from the reservoir tosaid flexible material.

6. 'An air cooling unit. comprising a casing structure including'a bottom wall, upstanding walls defining a chamber therein, saidjupstanding Walls having'openingstherein for travel of air acrossxsaid chambena series ofrelatively spaced pairs of thickabsorbent pads disposed parallel each: of; the pads: andratieach-side of each pad so. thatit-he: pads: aretexposed to the space above saidgtopwall. areservoir supportedby said casing :structure above.:said top-wall and in spaced relation therewith, a-porous flexible sheet of material mounted. between the. casing structure and the-.reservoirzspaced closely above-said top wall, an'd means for calibrated flow of water from the reservoir onto the upper. surface of said sheetof material, the flexible sheet of material .being so spaced with respect torrtheslopingportionsof the top wall that when the sheet ofmaterial has a sufficientquantity of-water thereon from the supply received from the reservoir the sheet of mate- Nu zhber rial will sag to contact the sloping portions of the 1,997,724 top wall so that the water seeping thru the sheet 2,092,810 of material will move directly onto the said pads. 2,-1}9,391 JOHN D. SCRUGGS. 5 2,273,587 2,490,080 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the N file of this patent; 3

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 820,036 Burch May 8, 1906 Name 1 Date Fink July 15, 1913 1 McLean Sept. 14, 1937 Bowdish Feb. 6, 1940 Myers Feb. 17, 1942 Melvill Dec. 6, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain Jan. 21, 1909 

